I drove by the Knitting Factory club today. I wanted to get an idea of what tomorrow’s audition might be like…there was a huge line outside of the place. Guys and gals all lined up with guitar in hand….it was pretty much what I expected it to be like. I’m guessing tomorrow will be a little like that but maybe not as much. Since today is the last of open auditions, I guess tomorrow is for the Call Backs or the people who were invited. My call time is 10am but if it’s anything like it looked today, I doubt I’ll get in there at exactly 10am. Should be an interesting experience though.

I’m not sure if they knew who the band was when they called me for the audition. My guess is, they didn’t know until a few weeks ago. I have my doubts about tomorrow but I’m going to go and have fun. At the very least, I come back home with a story about the audition. I figure they pretty much already know what they’re looking for and they might be looking for someone to fit that mold. Whether or not I’m a good fit isn’t up to me. I’ll know tomorrow either way

Funny…right after driving by, I went down to Melrose to buy a new shirt and or little things. I stopped for lunch at a little sidewalk cafe and saw Kellie Pickler and that Ace guy from this season’s American Idol. Trippy. I didn’t talk to them…not sure what I would have said if I did but it was interesting and ironic. Actually, my mind was more on the cool belt buckle I just picked up

Oh…I was just told that I’m now in the IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2179431/

My little credit looks lonely…I need more :) 

I watched King Kong last night and the nicest thing I can say is… I WANT 3 HOURS OF MY LIFE BACK. What a disappointment. The movie did not need to be as long as it was. I don’t mind longer movies as long as it’s interesting but this thing just had no steam behind it. The scenes were 4 times as long as they should have been. The FX were just "Okay"…I know they were going for a cartoon-ish look to it but you have to wait 1 hour and 10 minutes before you even get to see Kong, and even then it wasn’t all that impressive. I’m not sure what could have been done to it to make it better…I’m not sure what I expected but I found myself WANTING it to end.

If you have nothing better to do, it might be worth checking out but just don’t expect too much and you might enjoy it. I’m just happy I didn’t go see this in the theater. The DVD would make a nice coaster for your drink.

Let’s see… American Idol was pretty bad last night too. Talk about CRAP songs. The show’s theme was "songs that were released from 2000 to 2006" and last night’s show just proves that today’s music sucks ass. I tried to watch and listen to them sing but I found myself reaching for the Fast Forward button on the DVR. I couldn’t even begin to pick which person should be going home tonight. They ALL sucked. I suppose if I had to wager anything, I’d take a 50/50 shot at Lisa being a "goner" tonight. We shall see though. I doubt any of them caused people to actually pick up the phone and vote. Blah!

I just got back from having tea across from the Director’s Guild. I’ve never seen so many people all sitting around reading scripts …this town is so fake and sometimes it rubs me the wrong way. I did have a nice meeting though if you ignore the fact that the same street person asked me for "spare change" twice (as if I was going to suddenly change my mind and give some away the 2nd time) and a lady walked up to us asking if we were registered voters for some sort of survey or petition. HELLO, I’M HAVING A CONVERSATION HERE. How rude to walk up to someone at a table and interrupt them over something stupid. At least wait until there’s a break in their conversation. These people are living and breathing SPAM and I need a Junk Mail feature that makes them walk away from me in the future and into the TRASH.

Gee, reading back this post feels more like a rant …Weird too, cause I’m in a pretty good mood. Hmm.

Well…I should stop writing now :) 

So, yesterday I was getting caught up on friends, blogs, podcasts, email and basically all the computer stuff that makes up little pieces of my normal day…all the things I wasn’t able to do on the ship. One of the podcasts I tune into is Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code over at Curry.com. He’s just started messing around with video-casting and was running some tests.

So here I am multitasking and listening and watching and suddenly I look up and there I am on his video-cast.  I must say, it’s pretty surreal to see and hear an MTV VJ I grew up watching, sing along to one of my songs and videos. SWEET! I was digging the choreography he added to the chorus of Upside Down…I need to incorporate that into the next time I perform the track [Thanks Adam, you made my day]

Let’s see… I’m still on a weird time schedule. My body clock buzzed at about 7:30am and I just couldn’t fall back to sleep so I decided not to fight it and just got up and started the day. I imagine I’ll be falling asleep early tonight again.

Last night, I ended up going to the hockey game and playing even though my legs felt like jelly. I was going to skip the game but I decided to suck it up at the last minute and go. As it would turn out…our goalie didn’t show up and we played the game WITHOUT him. We didn’t stand a chance. I’ll not say the score and save myself some embarrassment. It’s very unlike our net keeper not to show up(at least without calling someone)…I hope nothing serious happened to him. I guess it was still good to get on the ice but we lost before the game even started.

I need to get back in the swing of going to the gym… being sick the week before I left for my trip made me unable to keep the schedule and now that I haven’t been keeping up the routine, I need to start it up again tomorrow. Getting there is the hardest part.

Here it is 10:30am and it feels like 7pm…I hate that. Grrrr!

Well, I should get some more stuff done. Happy Monday (if there is a such thing) ;) 

Here’s just a few photos from the cruise. I’ll post more when I get them.

[Me and Mom at dinner]

The photo above was the 1st formal dinner. There were 2 nights where I had to wear a tux. 

It feels pretty weird to be back. I’m super Jet-Lagged and there’s a part of me that still feels like i’m STILL on the ship. After rocking back and fourth for the last week and being stuck all day yesterday at airports, my body is just not used to being on land.

I had cell reception in St. Thomas but I spent most of the day there Scuba Diving. What a weird feeling to be underwater and not have to come up for air. We only went down 40 feet but my ears hurt a little as I went deeper.

We didn’t dive from a boat…We just did it from the beach. The guide gave us these little milk-bones that you would give a dog to feed the fish with and once you crumbled it up, swarms of fish surrounded you. VERY NEAT!

We’re at sea all day today and the ship internet access is SUPER slow..and at 35 cents a minute, this blog entry is the most costly yet

Let’s see…a quick mention of things going on:

1. I’m super tan
2. I went Scuba Diving (it was PRETTY SWEET).
3. Went Horse Back riding IN the OCEAN (HORSES SWIM…go figure).
4. so far the ship’s stopped in St. Thomas and St. Maartin…tomorrow we touch land in the Bahamas.
5. It’s super warm and the weather COULD NOT be better.
6. My cell phone does not work (BOO!).
7. I feel like I’ve gained 20 lbs.
8. It’s been a nice trip so far.
9. 2 old ladies were taken off the ship …i think one died…we had to go back to the dock…it was the talk of the ship.
10. I’m missing A.I. and the ship does not get FOX (Boo!) [not that i'm watching much TV]

Well…I better try to post this before I lose the internet connection. I’ll reply to the other comments on the last post when i get back

I leave REAL early tomorrow morning for a 7 day cruise. I think the ship ports in the Bahamas and a few other Caribbean Islands. I’m looking forward to the trip.

I’ve been on about 6 cruises in my life…it’s a little like being in a Las Vegas hotel on the ocean only the food is free and the weather is nicer.

Having been sick all week and still feeling the tail end of it now, I think a get-away will do me some good.

I’ll snap some pictures from the trip and post them when I get back. With luck I’ll be back to feeling well in the next day or two. I’m almost back to my normal self now but mornings are still bad. I still wake up coughing and gagging. I’m hoping a little fresh air will be a nice cure.

Anyway… I’ll try to post from the ship but they charge you by the minute for internet access so I’m guessing I won’t be online too much.

It’s going to be good to see my mom again. She’s in Florida now and I’m sure she’s looking forward to the trip as well. [Sorry mom but I'm going to try to avoid shopping with you on the Islands.]

She likes to stop in all the little stores and drive me a little crazy buying gifts for people. It’s good that she is thinking of others but it tends to make me feel like I can barely hold up my own body weight walking around the little stores. Those little stores are like the shops here in Hollywood…they all have the exact same things as one another…no reason to hit them all when just 1 will do the trick. :-D 

More when I can get back online.

I’ve decided that I’m not going to play in the hockey game on Thursday night. I’m feeling better but I’m still weak and I think I’ll be helping the team more by not playing. I’m a little bummed because I really want to play..I just don’t think it’s smart for me to go out there on the ice.

Last night’s American Idol was filled with pitchy performances but it got better near the end of the show. If I had to pick a winner just based on last night’s show I’d say that Taylor would be taking home the prize. He totally rocked "Living for the City" so much so that I actually hit rewind on the DVR and watched his performance again. Chris was pretty good too but Taylor was better. Also based on just last night’s show, I’m guessing Melissa and Kevin are "goners".

On a 2 hour show like that, it pays to be in the last 4 so people have them fresh on the brain when it comes to actually phoning in votes. Some of the singers near the start of the show, I can hardly remember.

Not much else on the brain today…

Man, this cold/flu is still lingering on. This is Day 5. I do feel better than I did a few days ago, but I’m far from being 100%.

I leave Friday for a Cruise (The Bahamas and few other Islands)and I’m doing everything I can to be well for it. My mom usually takes me on a cruise about every other year and it’s usually one of my favorite vacations to take.

My last cruise I went on, I flew to Fort Lauderdale and was there for 2 days before the ship actually took off. What ended up happening was… I went on the beach and got so sunburned that for the remainder of the trip, I was so sunburned I spent most of the time in the cabin in bed. I think i must have pealed off 4 layers of skin before it was all said and done. Lesson learned that trip was … "Just because it’s a cloudy day does not mean you won’t get turned into an over-cooked piece of bacon". 

And so… I’ll be avoiding sunlight or at least I’ll be wearing Sun block 2000000. It would be nice to come back with a little color, but I’m going to be extra careful. I’m supposed to be meeting up with a gal pal(Eman) I have there who I used to work with in Michigan. She’s been living there for the last 6 years now. I think she left Michigan shortly after I did. It’ll be nice to see her again.

Thursday night I have a hockey game and I’m hoping I’m going to be able to play. If I feel anything close to what I’m feeling now, I’m going to miss it though. Let’s see how the next few days go. The good news is, I’m hacking up this congestion…I think this is a good sign.

It’s been SUPER COLD here for Southern California. Usually this time of year, it’s in the 70’s but it’s been close to freezing the last few days. I’m in my apartment wearing a winter coat with a little space-heater on.

I’ll try to blog a little bit from the cruise ship though I’m not sure I’ll be able to answer comments next week. The ships now have DSL and computer stations on them. They usually charge you by the minute so If I do write anything, it’ll be brief. Same goes for emails. I’m pretty sure last time, I had no cell service so my Treo is somewhat useless…but I will snap some photos with it and post ‘em when I return ;) 

Oh before I go, Happy Birthday Diane! 

I’m still sick today. I had planned on having tea tonight with friends but waking up at 8am and not feeling any better than yesterday made me cancel plans for tonight. Man this sucks! I’ll try not to gripe too much about that though.

Since I woke up early and had nothing better to do, I looked at a box with old photos and found some funny ones that brought back some fun memories. The one picture that really isn’t such a great photo brought back the most nostalgia.

[I'm the one on the top right grinning ear to ear]

This picture above was snapped at a party at my old drummer’s place. It was a live viewing party for a TV show we were on. They had a projector set up and there were probably about 150 people all jammed into the living room (which explains why i’m standing on top of some sort of table). I only knew a few of the folks…I don’t know where everyone else came from…I’m guessing it was friends of friends. I noticed right around this time was when we started getting all these new people popping up and hanging out at shows. Most of those people vanished when the record deal vanished …funny how that works but it helps to know who your real friends are.

In any case, I was happy for the short-lived attention the show brought. A small taste of fame, leaving me wanting more. The only way I can describe it is…it’s like a drug. Once you’re bitten, you become this sort of vampire hunting out more of it.

I’m learning that if I stick with it, the Merry-Go-Round (if I’m lucky) comes back around but it’s twice as hard to get there again.

I think things came way too easy the 1st time. It was literally a script from some Hollywood movie. I moved to California…started a band…made a CD…at our CD Release Party we were lucky enough to have someone in the audience hand off our CD to an A&R guy …who then put us on this TV show….and then 2 days after shooting…they offered us a recording contract that was pretty dandy. This part of the story ended with the Record Company going under before we had a chance to sign the damn thing but the tornado spinning around us up until this point was a pretty strong one.

The whole ordeal was actually pretty surreal but one of the best times in my life. Funny how one of the best times in my life was followed by the worst. That whole saying of "the harder they fall" is really understated. I’ll skip the story about everything falling apart just as fast as it came together but you get the idea. The good thing about everything crashing and burning just made me realize that if i could pick myself up off the ground after that, I could live through anything

I’m not sure where this post is headed but It’s just thoughts that this picture brings to mind. I just hope that one day I’ll get a notch higher on the ladder of success. Good things have happened since then but so far none have been as exciting as the 1st time. I hope to change that

Well…I guess that’s enough nostalgia for one day eh?

Last night’s American Idol was a shocker… I thought for sure that Gedeon would have stayed on the show a bit longer. Poor Ayla…it was as if she had never failed at anything in her life up until this point. I felt bad for her but I do think the top 6 girls are the correct ones. I wish I could say the same for the top 6 guys. Kevin’s not going to be on the show much longer. He’s a likable underdog but to say he’s a better singer than Gedeon is a joke. Looking forward to next week’s show though.

Well…I should go back to being curled up in a ball on my futon and cocooned with my blanket. Happy Friday!